Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!
Spoiler Courtesy
Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.
Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags
Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).
Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:
Example
This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.
The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.
This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.
Posting Advice
When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.
Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!
Live Readings
The next weekly live reading session will be 2023-03-12T12:30:00Z Join the Japanese Book Club Discord to either read or listen!
Proper Nouns
Name
Reading
Notes
暦
こよみ
The main character
ユノ
ユノ
His grandfather’s dog
Participation
Will you be reading along with us this week?
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I have finished this part
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0voters
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Haven’t finished this part just yet, but I like that it’s picking up pace.
I found it super realistically portrayed how our protagonist just “finds” himself in a completely different place and then starts discovering how the universe he slid into has all those おかしい differences, some for the better, some for the worse.
The beginning is a bit strange. I had expected that 暦’s “parallel self” would know his “parallel past” and so know how he got into that box (although not knowing when the branching from his original world took place). What we see here is the opposite: he remembers what happened in our last week’s reading and discovers little by little what is different in his present world.
This universe of parallel worlds must be a pain to live in. You have to ask yourself permanently whether the reality that you remember is still the reality that your environment lives in. It would be much nicer if you could choose the parallel world that you want to jump into. This would allow you to undo errors or unhappy events.
I thought it’s the opposite actually. if it’s only the conscience that shifts/slides, I would expect it to be normal that Koyomi just ends in a random place where his parallel self used to be.
So some people after a divorce end up needing to basically move weekly over to the other parent, but I guess shifting over to another universe where you live with that parent is probably more troublesome.
I somehow find his obsession with the box and the key a tad bit unrealistic. Were I to be isekai’d in the most boring way at 10 years old, I would definitely have had other things I would’ve worries about before I could even remember that there was ever a box.
I’m pretty intrigued so far, but what struck me about this week’s reading is that it would have been way more compelling had the whole parallel worlds thing not been explained (to some extent, at least) in the first chapter. It’s sort of frustrating being so far ahead of the character in terms of understanding the situation and waiting for them to catch up. This chapter would have been a much stronger opening, IMO. I wonder if the first chapter was tacked on after the fact…
I’m also getting a hint of a general tendency to over explain things, which is probably why this reading feels super easy compared to some of the other IBC books. Like, OK, weird stuff is happening. We understand that through the descriptions. There’s no need to tell us things like “I feel like weird stuff is happening”–it’s obvious.
To be fair, it also took the protagonist surprisingly little time to acknowledge he’s in a parallel universe. If I were the writer, I would leave the protagonist struggling for at least a full chapter . But since as you said, chapter 1 already told us the basics so there’s way less to be discovered.
I am ultimately glad I gave this more of a chance. The prologue had me doubting whether or not I was gonna enjoy this one, but I decided to give it another shot, and I’m glad I did. I’ve actually read ahead without thinking because it properly hooked me, so I stopped at the 幕間instead of 16% this week (and was tempted to continue).
I do agree that the character pretty much immediately realizing he was in a parallel world seemed a bit silly; like, that’s your conclusion after only a little bit of thought? The writing is definitely a bit on the repetitive side as well, but it’s good enough to keep me intrigued, and I do want to see what is going to happen from here. Definitely a different feeling now than when I finished the prologue and was like… huh. Do I really care what happens?
Overall, I think I will finish this one up. It definitely helps that it is mostly standalone, so I’m not dedicating myself to some long series.
I think if I were reading this book in English, I would have been much more irked by the prologue than I am now. Since this is my first book in Japanese, I appreciate that they held my hand a bit in the beginning, even if I do think it is a slight bit weaker /less mysterious because of that.